This lesson was taught during the Sunday school hour by Nick Anderson as part of the series Tough Teachings of Jesus. The audio for the lesson can be found here.
In this series we have had lessons on tough teachings for:
● those who call Jesus Lord
Today, the lesson is called "Tough Teachings for People Who Hear This Lesson"
We are going to look at Matthew 11:28-30. Please open your bible to that passage and read:
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Hold on, you might say. This doesn't seem like a tough teaching. At first glance, it seems like this should be in the series called "Teachings of Jesus We Want to Hear More Sermon On", right?
So why do I say this is a tough teaching?
This is a tough teaching for two reasons: 1. The yoke does not feel easy, the burden doesn't seem light. 2. We are not naturally inclined to deal with sin God's way.
Let's take these in order:
● The yoke doesn't feel easy and the burden doesn't seem light.
The Christian life IS a bed of roses…it's just that someone forgot to remove all the thorns.
1. When we read this passage, we are confronted with this difficulty. 2. Trouble in our marriage 3. Fights with and among the kids 8. Problems with ourselves 1. How is it that Jesus can say his yoke is easy and his burden is light when all of us deal with so many problems in this life? 2. First, I would contend that not of the things I mentioned above are what Jesus is really talking about. 1. Jesus is not guaranteeing a smooth and easy life. I propose that when many of us read this passage, we read it wrong. We read it like Joel Osteen. We read into to this what we want it to say. Oh look, Jesus says he will give us comfort and rest! Finally, my financial woes will be gone. My health will be restored. I'll be happy happy happy all the time. No, that's not at all what Jesus is saying. Why? Because the Scriptures everywhere paint a picture of the Christian life being full of difficulty. In John 16:2 Jesus tells his disciples, "They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service." In John 16:33 he says, These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Jesus spoke these words to his disciples, and almost every one of them was martyred. You can buy entire books that catalogue the suffering of the saints through history. The saints have been burned alive, sawed in two, hanged, shot, beaten, had their stomach cut open, stuffed with food and then fed to hungry pigs. In light how Jesus describes your best life now, what are we to make of his words, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light? 1. First, what is Jesus' yoke? 1. Who is it that Jesus was mainly contending with in his ministry? The Scribes and Pharisees. And what had the scribes and pharisees done to the people of Israel? They had burdened them with all kinds of rules and regulations on top of the prescribed requirements of the Law. Jesus was dealing with both of these. 2. Jesus' invitation is to those who are burdened with the weight of the their own sin. The burden that the Law is to us when we are in an unconverted state is too unbearable for anyone who feels it. When we look into the perfect law of God and examine our own hearts, we quickly discover that we do not measure up to that perfect standard. This is a weight that every true Christian has felt. 3. Christ is inviting those who feel the weight of sin, the condemnation of the law, the nagging of their conscience to come and remove that burden and carry his. 4. You may not know this but I'm not a farmer. However, I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, so I know a little bit about farming. A yoke was a wooden (usually) beam that was placed on the neck of one or two oxen. The oxen would pull a plow behind them and prepare the field for planting. With a yoke on an ox, a farmer could control where the animal went and at what pace. So when Jesus says take his yoke upon yourself, he's inviting us to lay aside the heavy yoke of the the guilt of our sin. When we refuse this yoke, we are like an ox carrying a burden too heavy for it to lift. Everything we do is more difficult until we are rid of that yoke. 2. This passage is difficult if you are not converted 1. You will never find this passage to be comforting unless Christ changes your heart, however, if you do feel the weight of your sin, there is good news. Feeling the weight of your sin on your shoulders is good, and it may be that Christ is calling you today to lay aside that burden and take his yoke upon you. 1. Christ's yoke is a yoke, but it is a wonderful yoke. It is the yoke of a Lord who is gentle and lowly in heart. 1. The yoke of sin is that of a slave driver. Sin will carry your further than you want to go and beat you down harsher than you expect. 2. The yoke of Christ is that of a loving shepherd who cares for you. 2. Unless you are converted, you will not find rest for your souls 1. You will always labor under the guilt of sin for as long as your conscience is active. For as long as you choose to continue under the yoke of sin, you will find it to be a yoke that is unbearable. 2. In reading about this I found a modern guide to training animals to work under a yoke and one of the tips was really interesting. They said that animals who were yoked early in life were generally easier to handle and would be more obedient, even later in their life. Animals that were older were much more difficult to yoke, harder to handle, and generally more trouble than younger ones. Jonathan Edwards, during the revivals during his time noted that the younger people were more affected by the revivals than older people. In general, he observed the older you got, the more set in your ways you became, and the less likely you were to be open to spiritual things. 3. For those who are converted, but feel burdened 1. The burden that is relieved is the weight and guilt of sin. 1. Are you living in unrepentant sin? 2. Are you trying to alleviate your sin apart from the cross of Christ? 2. We will talk about that in more depth next, but let's reiterate: the burdens of every day life are not necessarily made easy and light - because that is not what this passage is talking about! 1. Do not let the very real difficulties you face in this life make you scoff at this. 2. Do not expect life to be easy because of this. 3. If the Lord does make your life easier, it will be primarily in a spiritual way, though the Lord does give material blessings as well. 4. The weight of the guilt of sin is the heaviest weight we can carry around, and no matter how good life gets, this weight will drag your soul down to hell if it isn't dealt with.
● The second reason this is a tough teaching: We are not naturally inclined to deal with sin God's way. 1. We are prideful and sometimes refuse to deal with sin the way we ought to. 1. We try to justify ourselves 1. We literally try to say that we are justified in doing wrong 4. It's ok, I'm under grace, not under the Law. 2. We try to excuse ourselves 1. I'm not as bad as Hitler! 2. It's not that big of a deal, it's a small sin. What's wrong with a little money laundering anyway? 3. Everyone does this all the time 5. It didn't hurt anyone (which is wrong, sin always hurts someone) 3. We try to appease our conscience 3. By judging others who are "worse" 4. We ignore the sin in our lives 1. Through hardness of heart 2. By neglecting God's Word 1. I know the Bible says this, but I'm a special snowflake. 2. The yoke of Christ is still a yoke, and naturally we want to be free from any yoke 1. Because of our pride, our natural sinful inclinations, and desire for independence, we do not want to take the yoke of Christ upon ourselves. 1. We fight against having someone else be our master and Lord. We want to be our own God. 2. However, when we do take his yoke upon us, we find that it is a much easier yoke than that of sin. 3. Application: We need to go to Christ because really does minister to his people. 1. He calls us to himself, and he is gentle 1. Remember the story of the woman caught in adultery? The Pharisees brought a woman who was caught in the very act of adultery, they claimed, and expected be able to trap Jesus. Instead, what did he do? He turned the whole situation around on them and used it as an opportunity to show them their own sin. He did not excuse her sin, in fact he told her to go and sin no more, and that is what he will do with those of us who are struggling with sin. 2. He really does give us rest for our souls be relieving the guilt and burden of sin. 1. If your heart is heavy and you are weary because of your sin, go to Christ today and ask him for relief. He will not turn away anyone who truly calls on him. Stop pretending, stop excusing yourself, stop justifying, stop ignoring it and go straight to Christ and get relief from Him. 2. This tough teaching doesn't have to be tough. If we are willing to humble ourselves we will find that the yoke of Christ is easy and his burden is light. We will find that he is gentle and lowly in heart.
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